‘Anemoia’
Noun
Nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.

This review contains very mild spoilers that can also be found in the synopsis, as well as discussing some of the movie's themes.

I was born in the early 2000s in the Netherlands. The reason I bring this up is because, as someone whose time and place of birth are both temporally and geographically very far removed from it, this movie invokes in me a deep nostalgia for small-town Japan in the late ‘70s, and that’s no accident. This movie, at its core, is a story about things that were once there but aren’t anymore. Lives, towns, relationships, childhood: all things end one day, and this movie makes sure to show you the beauty of these things, even if you know that they won’t last forever. I’m getting ahead of myself, so let’s break down what makes this movie great.

The first thing that’ll immediately jump out at most people watching this movie is the animation. The characters are drawn in a unique style that trades complex detail for fluidity, leading to some absolutely stunning sequences that are scattered throughout. I don’t want to spoil too much, but there are a number of sequences where, to emphasize the emotion of a scene, certain visual choices were made that turned them into deeply impactful and memorable moments.

Storywise, the movie is happy to draw on clichés and tropes we’ve all seen before: dead parents by traffic accident, magical time leaps, etc. What’s unique, however, is that none of these tropes feel tropey because they are not relied upon as easy shortcuts but rather are properly set up and explored, making them feel fresh and new despite being familiar, which only adds to this atmosphere of nostalgia.

As mentioned earlier, thematically, the movie focuses on transient things. It strikes a great balance between showing the pain of those things being gone, but also the beauty of having the chance to experience those things at all. It tackles some heavy subject matters and doesn’t shy away from being sad or painful, but ultimately it remains hopeful, looking towards the present to find new beauty. These themes are directly tied to the plotlines of the main characters, which made the emotional beats of these arcs carry more weight and, at one point, made me break out in tears.

In conclusion, Nijiiro Hotaru is a beautifully animated movie that touches on themes like finality and grief with some real heart, emotion, and great writing behind it. If you want to be transported to a time and place that feels somehow nostalgic yet unfamiliar, watch this movie. Maybe in a few years, you’ll be nostalgic for this too.